SDF arrests several ISIS suspects during ongoing operation

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Tuesday announced the arrest of several Islamic State (ISIS) suspects during a recently-launched operation against the group in northeast Syria (Rojava).

The SDF on Thursday announced a new anti-ISIS mission dubbed Operation al-Jazeera Thunderbolt, targeting the terror group’s hotspots in northeast Syria’s al-Hol and Tal Hamis. The force later expanded the campaign to Syria-Iraq borders.

“More than 63 km was swept along the desert east of the al-Hol, where ISIS cells could use it for hiding,” the US-backed force said in a statement on Tuesday.

“The joint forces raided possible hideouts, arresting three suspects who were, according to initial information, linked to ISIS terrorist cells. The arrestees were referred to investigation to inspect their true identities,” read the statement.

The SDF also said that its forces arrested two other ISIS suspects who were hiding in a house. They are accused of being “responsible for manufacturing IEDs and VBIEDs for targeting military points and security patrols in al-Hasaka and Deir Ezzor countryside.”

Four “criminals” were also arrested who have allegedly carried out kidnappings, looting and extortion in Hasaka, said the Kurdish-led force without elaborating whether they were affiliated to ISIS.

The SDF has made tens of ISIS arrests since the launch of the operation which has followed fresh deadly attacks by the terror group.

Late last month, a deadly ISIS attack targeted SDF positions in the terror group’s former stronghold of Raqqa, now controlled by the SDF, killing six fighters of the Kurdish force and injuring many others.

ISIS controlled swathes of Syrian land in 2014 but it was territorially defeated by the SDF with aerial support from the anti-ISIS global coalition in 2019.